Tag Archives: Church of the SubGenius

Sometimes while I’m preparing newspapers for microfilming, I come across interesting images, often I’ll take a photo on my phone and upload it to Facebook to share with my friends.

I did this a couple of weeks ago and received an amazing response to a series of photos I posted from The Blue Ridge Herald from June 1956. I have been aware of the Church of the SubGenius since the late 1980′s. During high school, a friend’s older brother had purchased a copy of The Book of the SubGenius : The Sacred Teachings of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, so I checked it out. Wikipedia identifies the Church of the SubGenius as “a ‘parody religion’ organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture.”

The Dobbs head was immediately recognizable in this advertisement for a department store in Leesburg, Virginia. This is believed to be the earliest known reference to date. Click image for high resolution photo.

Two days after my initial posts I started receiving many comments and “likes” from strangers who are affiliated with the Church. The three photos were shared a total of 78 times in a period of just a few days. Reactions ranged from incredulity to claims of “Without a doubt, this is the most significant discovery of the age.” and “A truly earth shattering discovery!” Naysayers left comments such as “Hmmm…no dimple on the chin. I call FALSE BOB! CAST HM OUT!”, “That is not ‘Bob’ — it’s a False Bob. Do not be fooled by cheap imitations”, “The shadows are ALL WRONG. The shadows from his nose and cheeks point downwards at a 45 degree angle to the left (DOWN AND TO THE LEFT, DOWN AND TO THE LEFT), but the shadow of his PIPE go down at a 45 … read more »